The government's U-turn on scrapping IR35 may be disappointing for some contractors and freelancers, but one commentator believes there may be a silver lining.

In spite of wide expectation that the system would be dropped in this week's Budget, the chancellor said the potential loss of revenue would be too great to bear.

Writing for eFinancialCareers.co.uk, Paul Clarke said rather than eradicating IR35, the government has tried to make it easier to comply with, introducing measures like a dedicated helpline and a forum to assess the effectiveness of the new approach.

There is also a possibility that scrapping IR35 would lead to something worse in its place, he added.

"Increased tax evasion will inevitably arise without this legislation and could easily result in the government being hurried into the wrong medium-term solution, which would create much greater problems for professional contractors," explained Martin Hesketh, managing director of contractors' accountancy firm Brookson.